By Sydnee Scofield for ABC 11 WTVD

Across the 16 public universities governed by the UNC System, President Peter Hans is recommending keeping tuition flat for in-state students for the ninth year in a row.

“No other state in the nation can claim nine straight years of no tuition increases. We’re incredibly proud of that,” Hans told ABC11.

The proposal will move to the UNC Board of Governors, who have approved no tuition increase for in-state students for the past eight years.

“There is a constitutional commitment in North Carolina to keeping tuition as low as possible. I’d argue there’s a moral obligation as well because that involves access to our institutions for students and their families to envision themselves attending and affording of university and North Carolina education,” Hans said. “It’s the taxpayers acting through their elected representatives, very generous in the way they fund the university that enable us to keep costs low. Inflation takes a toll on us just like everybody else in terms of housing and dining costs, in particular. But tuition, we’ve been able to hold the line for nine years in a row. I want to shoot for a full decade on that.”

With that flat tuition, the UNC System noticed that fewer students are borrowing money to attend public universities, especially in the last five years.

“The percentage actually of our graduates who take out federal loans has fallen from 60% to 50%, which is a good thing from my perspective, that they’re not taking on debt and they can graduate college with bright prospects for career and life without having to worry about how are they going to pay that back,” he said.

The amount that students are borrowing is down as well.

The proposal to keep tuition the same from previous years comes at a time of uncertainty about the future of education funding in the United States – following a flurry of Executive Orders from the Trump Administration aiming to cut federal spending.

Hans said it’s too early to tell what kind of impact we could see in our North Carolina universities from this, especially with active litigation challenging some of the orders.

“It’s going to take a while to work its way through the courts. So, taking a deep breath to achieve that clarity is going to be helpful for everyone,” he said.

With funding at stake especially for so many research programs at North Carolina universities, Hans hopes these orders will at least open a dialogue.

“This is a conversation we want to have, both about the benefits of medical research and university research but also realizing there’s a larger national conversation about the federal debt, and yet don’t lose America’s competitiveness in medical breakthroughs, which save and change so many lives,” Hans said.

The preceding article originally appeared on February 12, 2025 at WTVD’s website and is made available here for educational purposes only. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 106A-117 of the U.S. Copyright Law.